Familia y cuidados de salud. Calidad de vida en cuidadores y repercusiones sociofamiliares de la dependencia

• Main Author: Delicado Useros, Maria Victoria
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: Spanish
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2003
• Subjects: Caregivers; Demographics; Families & family life; Health care; Health care management; Home health care; Psychology; Public health; Qualitative research; Quality of life; Sociodemographics; Socioeconomic factors; Sociology; Studies; Women
• ISBN: 8484273148; 9788484273141

Preliminaries. Different perspectives and research works have pointed out the main socio-economic contribution supported by the family in situations of need. Traditionally, women have been the ones in taking care of disability people, with the logical costs and consequences for both their health and life. Objectives. To describe socio-demographic profiles of caregivers of patients confined at home (home carers). To identify consequences of caring as burden, quality of life and psychic state of health of caregivers. To characterize networks of supports and available resources, among them nursing care. Methodology (design). It consists of two complementary techniques: a descriptive (quantitative) study on informal health care in Albacete, and a more qualitative research based on focus groups formed by primary care nurses. Target population. Caregivers of dependent patients confined at home. 209 interviews were carried out in Albacete (Spain) along 2001 and 2002. Measure tools. An own elaborated questionnaire collecting socio-demographic information, quality of life measured with COOP-WONCA charts, Zarit's BMI and Goldberg's GHQ-12 to detect psychic alterations. Work developed. Descriptive statistics are obtained. Indicators of quality of life, burden and psychic alterations are computed and a comparison is established among different groups of caregivers. Impact of the independent variables are investigated. Results and relevant conclusions. 82,8% of caregivers are women, their average age is 58,7 years old and 25% of them are 69 or older. Most of them are housewives and their educational level is low. 22,5% are spouses, and 45,5% children, of the person in need. Most of them share home although 25,4% rotate in the care. 10,5% are paid caregivers. Men caregivers have a higher average age, they are basically retired, husbands of the person in need. Lack of time, fatigue and a decrease of their leisure time are the most common consequences on caregivers. 70,8% receive support from other relatives and one third have external domiciliary help. Health professionals support caregivers. On average, nurse homecare visits takes place twice a month and each visit lasts 22 minutes. Nurses are aware of the caregiver situation but, in general, do not consider them as subject of their care. One third of the studied home carers have values showing poor quality of life. In 31,4% of them the burden is intense. Psychic alterations appear in 43,6% of the interviewees.